Curious But Focused

“The heart of open-mindedness is curiosity.” -Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

“Curiosity can empower you or impede you.

Being curious and focused is a powerful combination. I define this combination as unleashing your curiosity within the domain of a particular task: asking questions about how things work, exploring different lines of attack for solving the problem, reading ideas from outside domains while always looking for ways to transfer the knowledge back to your main task, and so on. Even though you’re exploring widely, you’re generally moving the ball forward on the main thing. You start something and you keep searching until you find an effective way to finish it.

Meanwhile, when your curiosity sends you off in a dozen different directions and fractures your attention, then it can prevent you from focusing on one thing long enough to see it through to completion. Curious, but unfocused. You’re jumping from one topic to the next, they aren’t necessarily related, your efforts don’t accumulate, you’re simply exploring. You start many things and finish few.” -James Clear

You start by being curious. Follow that curiosity. Let it take you where it takes you. Eventually you may decide to make something. 

Should you make that decision, then you finish by being ridiculously, intensely and laser-focused.